The Discovery of The Super Earth | Space Discoveries 2020

 

  the universe is an unfathomably large  place  in fact it's so big we don't actually  know what happens past what we can  detect  it could spread out infinitely or be  infinitely spreading  it's anyone's guess given this scale  there must be  other planets out there similar to our  own so what is  a super earth and has one been  discovered that could support  life welcome to  and today  we're looking for a new planet earth  only upsized in the discovery of the  super earth  what is a super earth a super earth is  classed as any planet outside of our  solar system that has a mass of between  one and ten earths it took a long time  to discover the first exoplanet and as  you could imagine  it was a pretty big deal back in 1995  when we confirmed our solar system  wasn't an anomaly in the universe  fast forward to the present day and  there are 4 292 confirmed exoplanets  a number that is growing exponentially  with more and more being discovered each  year  of these exoplanets roughly 10 percent  have been confirmed as being super earth  size  and that's not even the craziest part  there are an estimated 155  billion super earths in our milky way  galaxy alone  making it the most abundant type of  exoplanet  in order to understand the formation of  life on our planet and the possibility  that it could evolve on other worlds  we have to look outside our solar system  but if there are so many super earths  what makes these ones so impressive  it's all about scale cosmic bodies are  so  far away the distance in numbers becomes  so large they start to lose all meaning  once we start talking about 10 to the  nth power  to get an idea of just how large the  universe is it helps to put it into a  scale we can understand  imagine the earth as a single grain of  sand with the moon a speck of dust  orbiting from 1.5 centimeters away  comparatively the sun would be around  the same size as a pool ball  six meters away from the earth keep in  mind the largest known star  canis majoris would be 39 meters in  diameter  684 times the size of our own sun  the solar system is four football fields  wide with our little pool ball sun at  its center  the star nearest to us proxima centauri  is now 1572 kilometers away  take another step back the milky way  galaxy is 46 million  375 000 kilometers wide compared to the  tiny grain of sand that is the earth  now imagine that our solar system is the  grain of sand  it sits in the milky way galaxy which is  50 kilometers wide  and our nearest neighbor the andromeda  galaxy is 1012 kilometers away  the observable universe sits in a field  of view that is 37.2  million kilometers in diameter finally  shrink the milky way galaxy down to that  grain of sand  the entire universe is as big as the  empire state building  light leaving our galaxy travels one  centimeter away to the andromeda galaxy  taking 2.5 million years to complete its  journey  the universe is almost too big to  comprehend  which begs the question how many  earth-like planets really exist  the drake equation dr frank drake put  forward a simple equation in 1961 to not  only quantify the potential number of  civilizations in the universe but also  to stimulate  scientific minds to start prioritizing  the answer to the big question  are we alone in the universe the  equation is formed by simple variables  that add up to give you the number of  civilizations in the milky way galaxy  who are advanced enough to produce  detectable electromagnetic signals  it's the average rate of star formation  in our galaxy times the fraction of  those stars that have planets times the  average number of planets that can  potentially support life per star that  has planets  times the fraction of planets able to  support life and actually do at some  point  times the fraction of planets with life  that go on to develop intelligent life  times the fraction of civilizations that  develop the technology required to  transmit detectable signs of their  existence into space times the length of  time the civilizations exist  and release their signals into space  there's no real way to determine any  specific numbers for any of the terms in  the drake equation  however the concept was so profound that  it prompted the formation of the search  for extraterrestrial life institute or  seti  seti are the ones keeping an ear out  should anyone be making a long-range  phone call from way outside our solar  system  goldilocks planet the habitable zone  describes the range of distance a planet  can be from its orbited star while still  being able to maintain liquid water  we only know of carbon-based light and  it's clear that other carbon-based life  would need water to form and survive  these planets are also known as  goldilocks planets  as they're not too close to their sun to  cause water to evaporate nor are they  too far away that all the water turns to  ice  there are more than a few exoplanets  that sit in an orbit that could  potentially support life  howdy neighbor one of our nearby stars  is a multi-planet system similar to ours  and boasts at least two and as many as  three super earth-sized exoplanets now  that we've explored  scale it's actually 11 light years or 64  trillion miles away  so close in the grand scheme of cosmic  things  this is important as these three  exoplanets around the gj887 star provide  one of the best possibilities for study  in the search for life outside our solar  system  gj887 is classed as a red door which  tend to be larger and more reactive than  yellow dwarfs like our sun  however this red dwarf is relatively  quiet and tame compared to others of its  class  it produces less solar flares so that  the light heat and radiation it emits  are more constant than erratic  the two confirmed super earths may be a  little too close and as such too hot to  contain liquid  water however the third is within the  narrow band of distance dubbed the  habitable zone  a close cousin the exoplanet gj357d  is around twice the size of earth but  also has six times its mass  it too falls in the habitable zone and  likely has a dense atmosphere that could  be able to trap enough heat close to the  planet to allow liquid water to form on  its surface  it orbits a star that is a third of the  size of our own and around 40 percent  closer  a year is 55.7 days and the distance is  around a fifth of the earth from our sun  meaning it's very likely to have  earth-like conditions  the best super-earth contender over  towards the center of the milky way  galaxy 1200 light years from earth in  the constellation  lira sits kepler-62f it's a curious  exoplanet that is being dubbed a  one-in-a-million super-earth  its mass is 1.4 times more than that of  earth  small enough to have a rocky composition  with a molten core  its brown dwarf star is much smaller and  cooler than our sun and although the  exoplanet is in an orbit the distance of  venus from their sun  the distance relative to the heat of  their sun is similar to earth  a year lasts around 267 days and  temperature conditions  could be remarkably like that of our  climate so far it is without a doubt the  closest exoplanet to earth that we've  found by a huge margin  its nearest neighbor kepler-62e is  another goldilocks planet 1.6 times the  size of earth  that also sits well within the habitable  zone of that system  modeling the two planets based on the  data recorded points to both being  engulfed in water  having great seas and oceans just like  our own  atmospheric gas could lead to trapping  the water vapor forming clouds and  causing precipitation  with life evolving from water they are  great candidates for the best chance of  finding life outside our solar system  if we could only get there the gravity  is less than earth's and human beings  would have no trouble walking around on  its surface  though the atmospheric composition of  kepler-62e could potentially support  respiration  kepler-62f is totally out of the  question  spacesuits with breathing apparatuses  would definitely be needed  life on these worlds would have to be  totally aquatic which begs the question  would an intelligent civilization on  these planets be anything like ours  with no exposed land there would be no  dry vegetation which means no fires to  cook food with to melt metals or to  generate warmth  as the planet's surface is well below  sea level harvesting resources and  mining materials from the solid ground  would be very difficult  on kepler-62f if the planet's rotation  is not locked with its orbit and the  amount of carbon dioxide in the  atmosphere sits between three and five  bars  a stable ecosystem is entirely possible